10th annual History Across the Humanities begins Thursday

The 10th annual History Across the Humanities conference will be held at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor on Feb. 22 and 23.

The theme for this year’s event is “Understanding the Past, Improving the Present and Imagining the Future.” There will be presentations related to the history of science, science-fiction and science-fiction in film, literature and pop culture. Discussions will also be held about how education, tourism, science and technology enhance the quality of life in communities. View the presentations schedule online.

The featured speakers will be, Tiffany Knoell, associate teaching professor, Popular Culture for Bowling Green State University and John Scalzi, New York Times best-selling author.

Knoell’s presentation, “Have Pastport, Will Travel: Public and Personal Histories,” begins at 1 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 22.

Knoell studies temporal tourism, silent cinema, popular music of 1900 - 1940, cultural history, animation before television, popular history, nostalgia and science fiction. She also teaches courses on time travel, science fiction, American mythologies, global animation and popular culture and media.

The area chair for popular history in American culture for the Popular Culture Association National Conference, Knoell is also the co-host of “Silent Film Fridays: Where the Films are Silent but the Hosts are Not,” weekly on Twitch.

An Evening with John Scalzi will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 in Room 132 of DeBartolo Hall.

Scalzi’s work has been translated into more than 30 languages and he has won numerous awards including the Hugo, the Locus, the Audie, the Robert A. Heinlein, the Seiun and the Kurd Lasswitz. Salzi is also the former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

Beyond his work in print, Scalzi has written several short stories, which were adapted into episodes of the Netflix series “Love, Death and Robots” and has served as a creative consultant for the “Stargate: Universe” series.

HATH is sponsored by the Robert W. Reder I and Charles Darling Endowments in History, the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor and the Trumbull County Historical Society.